Chris Harrison

The eighth season of The Bachelorette vows to be unlike any other. The famewhore making the decisions this season is Emily Maynard. America’s sweetheart, America’s famewhore, same difference. You probably remember Emily from Brad Womack’s second season. Brad’s the frequent-flyer bachelor who handed out roses in both seasons 11 and 15 of The Bachelor. His second attempt at true love ended with him proposing to Emily. Emily accepted Brad’s proposal, but her ridiculously high expectations and naiveté quickly wilted the relationship.

Emily is a single mom. And, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but she was engaged once before Brad. She was engaged to Ricky Hendrick, of NASCAR fame, in 2004. Sadly, on a rainy Sunday afternoon in October of the same year, Ricky boarded a plane sans an ill-feeling Emily. The plane crashed, leaving behind a pregnant Emily. Now, Emily is a single mom looking for true love on The Bachelorette. Even though it didn’t work for her the first time around, she “knows the series works.” Because, you know, that 17% success rate is a great testament of the true love that comes from appearing on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. I’m obviously grading on a curve, here. I’m including Trista Sutter, Jason Mesnick, by way of U-turn, Ashley Hebert, and Ben Flajnik, who is still collecting money on the deal.

Chris Harrison, oh blue-eyed, well-dressed, always there with stellar love advice, Chris Harrison. Call me. As I’m sure y’all know, I was very upset to hear about the divorce of the Bachelor franchise’s most level-headed and handsome host. Of course, instead of letting him deal with his family problems behind closed doors, People Magazine wonders if he himself will be the next Bachelor. Um, have you seen him? While he’s a beyond fabulous host of the train wreck, he’s way too good to be an actual contestant. For shame!

The very classy Mr. Harrison manages to remain upbeat, telling the magazine, “Getting out of a 22-year relationship, having just announced my divorce to the world a week ago, having two kids and trying to start a new life, I’m thinking I wouldn’t exactly be a great candidate to be the bachelor right now or anytime soon.”

One of the oddest things about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette‘s astoundingly low success rates was that ubiquitous host Chris Harrison was happily married to his high school sweetheart. Chris and his wife Gwen Jones kept their marriage very quiet and seemed to be happy as clams.

Sadly, yesterday the couple, who has two children together, filed for divorce after 18-years of marriage. Allegedly the pair has been separated for months, but have remained friends. Chris even threw Gwen a lavish birthday party this January. Despite their issues, they have also been co-parenting their children, Joshua, 9, and Taylor, 7.

“They are still really close and remain the best of friends,” an insider reports to In Touch Weekly. “They’ve been taking turns with their kids so they can both see them as much as possible. It has been really amicable, with no other parties involved, and Chris has been a total professional while filming The Bachelorette.”

Oh Chris Harrison…I have no doubt that you are the most moral, most ethical, most handsome host of any reality debacle, and, as such, any lawsuit against anything with which you may be remotely involved, needs to be escorted to a limo and ugly cry all the way back to the airport.

As you all have heard, there is a suit pending against the most dramatic show ever for never hiring minority applicants. Looking back over past seasons, they may actually be on to something! However, Bachelor producers are no longer staying mum about the accusations according to wetpaint.com.

Warner Horizon, the parent company of the modern day fame whore love connection, released a statement citing, “This complaint is baseless and without merit. We have had various participants of color throughout the series’ history, and the producers have been consistently — and publicly — vocal about seeking diverse candidates for both programs.” The statement goes on to say that producers will “continue to seek out participants of color” for the franchise.

Emily Maynard‘s upcoming season of The Bachelorette is in full-swing. The beautiful, blonde sweetheart was spotted filming her dates all over her hometown of Charlotte, NC and spoilers are popping out everywhere about Emily’s guys. This week ABC headed to Toronto to start the first leg of the international dates and apparently things are going well for one of the most beloved Bachlorettes ever!

Despite Emily’s sweet demeanor, host Chris Harrison wants the world to know she’s not always Miss Nicey-Nice! “She’s a pistol,” Chris warnedKelly Ripa on Live with Kelly “She’s sweet until she’s not!” Emily is also, apparently, “Perfect on a stick!” Whatever that means. Well, thanks for the update Chris and here’s hoping Emily keeps any rogue bachelors in line!

Moving on, rumors are swirling thatThe Bachelor is finally ready to introduce some diversity into its dating pool. Finally. According to Entertainment Weekly, Portland-based sportscaster and philanthropist Lamar Hurd could be on his way to becoming the show’s first African-American Bachelor! Can I just say it again – it’s about freaking time!

The 28-year-old former Oregon State basketball player interviewed with ABC about potentially signing onto the show as The Bachelor. Lamar’s assistant initially convinced him to submit a video to Bachelor casting directors and he was surprised when it garnered the attention of producers.

Show creator Mike Fleiss admitted last year that the show badly needed to diversify. “We always want to cast for ethnic diversity, it’s just that for whatever reason, they don’t come forward. I wish they would,” he explained.

Lamar, who is also divorced, is excited about the possibility of joining the show and has started a Twitter (@1stBlkBachelor) campaign to keep fans updated. “Let’s say I wanted to go on it, and was willing to do it, they haven’t even had a black Bachelor,” he said of joining the show.

And Lamar’s philosophy on love is simple: “It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, it’s who I’m doing it with. So if it’s someone that I’m in love with then we’re going to have a good time.” A video of Lamar talking about the show and a photo are below!

ARE YOU EXCITED FOR EMILY’S SEASON? THOUGHTS ON LAMAR HURD AS THE FIRST BLACK BACHELOR?

This week’s installment of The Bachelor was the much-anticipated ‘Women Tell All’ (except where it comes to violating your non-disclosure agreement) special, and the ladies finally got their chance to make Courtney Robertsoncry. They called her out for lying, accused her of being a stripper, and in general, piled on her like a bunch of ravenous wolves, jealous that they didn’t have the skills to lock the Flajnik down.

In his People.com blog, Ben is over the women’s treatment of Courtney and believes that she is sorry. He writes, “I appreciate what she did by coming on Women Tell All and apologizing for her actions, it seemed genuine to me.”

Whether or not he believes it or needs to pretend to support her in order to make his bosses at the network happy and keep the facade rolling until the final rose ceremony, is anyone’s guess. Ben has defended Courtney in his blogs all season, and continues to claim that she’s a good person, and that we just don’t know her like he does.

He explains, “To see an emotional side of this woman was a good thing and it makes her feel like she is human, and a softer, sweeter side is shown. It’s a side that I saw throughout the journey that no one else did.”

With the season almost at a close, it’s time to crank up the rumor mill and speculate on who will be the next lucky man to have a televised open relationship! The current rumor belongs to football player and Christian sensation, Tim Tebow.

The rumor originated due to an interview Tim did with Bachelor host Chris Harrison on Access Hollywood. In an interview with CBS Sports, Harrison reveals that “He did say yes… but he would never do it,” he has a little job called quarterback at least for another year.” He was also quick to point out that celebrities “always say yes” when Chris asks them about the show, but obviously, none have ever actually done it.

It’s highly doubtful Tim would have participated anyway, due to the huge time commitment, and more importantly, I’m guessing hooking up with multiple women conflicts with Tim’s devout Christian beliefs.

He cleared up the rumor via his Twitter, writing “”Haha rumors can be crazy! Even though I’ve watched the show before, I’m definitely not gonna be on the Bachelor. #JessePalmer.”

TELL US : DO YOU BELIEVE COURTNEY’S APOLOGIES ARE GENUINE? WHICH CELEBRITY WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ON THE BACHELOR?

Are you sick of The Bachelor yet? It’s almost over, and Ben will soon pick a woman to spend a few months with before they have a very public break-up and move on to ill-conceived spin-offs and paid club appearances. But first, we have to get down to the very serious business discussing this week’s rose ceremony, where Ben Flajnik picked Courtney Robertson over Nicki Sterling.

In his People.com blog, Ben explains that he loves being around Courtney and they have many things in common like sex and swimming naked, and some other stuff:

“I light up every time I am around Courtney…We had a lot of natural, easy-going fun exploring the town, and I realized how many things we have in common when it comes to things like traveling, food and music.”

Courtney really ended up saving herself when, in their conversation, she just admitted that she didn’t get along with the other women, and could have done a better job not being a psycho. It was ultimately her declaration of love that convinced him. He explains that, “We had a great time in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Courtney told me she loves me, which felt so good. I love her silliness and quirkiness, but I want to see an emotional side too, and this came just in time.”

But he was happier to hear her admit some of her wrong-doing through out the entire season:

“The dinner conversation we had was exactly what I needed to hear. I was really relieved to hear Courtney admit that she could have tried harder to get along with the women. I know they were sometimes mean to her, too, but I needed to hear her say that she could have done things much differently and may have gotten much better results. I have tried this entire journey to be patient and more forgiving. Courtney was worth the patience and I was happy to feel like she turned a big corner.”

The producers threw him a curve ball by flaying Kacie back in, and it almost swayed him, but Ben decided to just go with Courtney:

“Hearing her warn me about Courtney’s insincerity again brought everything to a head. I had just laid most of my concerns with Courtney to rest, and then it was like everything we had worked toward was swept away again. I went into the rose ceremony incredibly confused about the big picture and had to just follow my heart when I handed out the roses.”

On his blog on EW.com, The Bachelor host Chris Harrison doesn’t look at the situation with the same romanticism as Ben, and calls Courtney out for “manipulating” the date in the last episode in order to get what she wants. This must be another of her patented seduction techniques! Chris says:

There is one thing I noticed again this week concerning Courtney and Ben. Courtney continues to turn the situation around, giving her the power position. For example this week while the other two women chose to accept the fantasy suite, Courtney turned the tables and asked Ben to accept. These things are very subtle, but it’s a defense mechanism of hers she’s used several times with him. Ben left that date feeling good about Courtney and their relationship.”

Now, even though Courtney acted awful this whole season, I feel compelled to give her some credit because she focused on Ben, made him feel wanted, and she’s in the top two, and will more than likely end up winning the whole thing. As many have said before, the show is called The Bachelor, not The Best Friend.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT COURTNEY MAKING IT TO THE TOP TWO? DO YOU THINK BEN SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO THE WARNINGS? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE FINALE, AND FOR THE ‘WOMEN TELL-ALL EPISODE?

Since I know you all are heartbroken and dying to know the reasons Ali Fedotowski and Roberto Martinez ended their engagement and broke up, according to reports ABC is considering filming a breakup special with the former lovebirds.

Life & Style talked with host Chris Harrison about the canceled engagement and asked hat he thinks went wrong. “I’m sorry for Ali and Roberto, but I’m old enough and wise enough to know that these things happen,” Chris explains, adding that neither Ali or Roberto blame the show for the disintegration of their relationship. “It’s not the show, and it’s not TV, it’s life.”

As for the supposed breakup special, Chris says he’d be more than happy to film one! “I’d sit down with Ali and Roberto, but I don’t know what good it would do,” he muses. “It’s kind of like when someone says, ‘Why did you get divorced?’ It’s never really that black-and-white, and I don’t know what either one of them could offer or say that would really satisfy anybody.”

Following her breakup Ali has confessed to not knowing what to do with her life and it appears she may have some answers! OK! Magazine is reporting her days of looking for love on TV may be far from over as they are claiming she is a contender to be the next Bachelorette! Perhaps the reports that Ali is a desperate famewhore have some validity…

“The network would love to have her back,” Ali a friend tells the mag, dropping hints that Ali is interested in pulling a Brad Womack. And we all know how well that turned out!

The friend claims that Ali’s overwhelming ratings on the show have execs interested in giving her a second chance. “Her numbers were through the roof and people were really rooting for her to fall in love.” Does this “friend” think perhaps Roberto had anything to do with those high numbers?

Ali is carefully weighing her options whilst getting over her heartbreak before committing. “She hasn’t made up her mind about anything, but she also hasn’t ruled out the idea. It’s definitely been discussed,” the friend continues. “The show would love to get her to say yes.” Riiiight. Personally I think they should ask Roberto to be the next Bachelor instead!

WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN AN ALI & ROBERTO BREAKUP SPECIAL? DO YOU CARE? DO YOU BELIEVE THE NETWORK IS CONSIDERING ASKING ALI TO BE THE NEXT BACHELORETTE?